Redistributing the technological burden

I have previously written on this site about my technological downgrading of the past couple years; it started with deleting social media, then slowly cutting out streamed entertainment media, leading me to (comparatively) inconvenient physical formats of media consumption. It is difficult to describe in few words the profound impact this lifestyle shift has provided my life; art has always been everything to me, and now that I seldom interact with it on the internet, I feel I have the opportunity to forge a more personal, meaningful connection with the pieces of culture I consume.

This is not to say I don't use the internet --- given my status as a member of society with an array of worldly obligations, I must. Particularly as a student, 99% of the work I do requires online access. I also check my email multiple times a day [which !sidebar! I'm looking for an email host that uses as little AI as possible... Google is pissing me off with their "AI Summary" at the top of my Jersey Mike's promotional communications. Please let me know if you're aware of any viable alternatives,] and occasionally play the New York Times' Wordle or solitaire online. As I fine tune my value systems, I often find it necessary to consult literature --- a lot of which I have access to solely by way of the internet. I do therapy online. Heck, I'm on the internet RIGHT NOW as I draft these words for www. bedddog .com.

And, while we're confessing, I'll also admit that I streamed many episodes of Veronica Mars (2004) this past weekend while staying at my parents' house [yes, I am disturbed... TV, give me shelter!] (The complete first season on DVD is being held for me at an Irvine Public Library as we speak. I shall obtain that soon enough.)

Now, you may be thinking (or softly whispering) to yourself, "but Lily, why are you listing everything you do on the internet? I don't CARE!"

I understand, and you're valid! The point I'm trying to illustrate is this: I may be one of the most "offline" people you know (of,) but I'm still fairly plugged in. Week after week, whilst continually reevaluating the role the internet, my "dumb-ified" smartphone, and my computer play in my daily routine and broader life goals, I keep getting reminded of how inescapable technological overreach is. I'm constantly being tracked by the GPS in my phone, the queries I ask search engines, the things I say over phone calls with family and friends. Advertisers have much of my specific personal information, obtained without me having ever knowingly consented to it. If I so much as utter the phrase "nose hair" in the physical realm, I will then proceed to be assaulted by Amazon ads picturing many inventions that deal with that very thing in sub-10 minutes (no joke, happened to me on Monday.) Perhaps I cut some limbs off, live without any intentional usage of the internet. But that doesn't stop them from tracking me through the devices of those whom I surround myself with, the cameras outside most every establishment, the microphones that are in every room I've ever existed. How does one find peace in an Orwellian state as such? For this, I have no real answer. I've simply learned to live with my disconcert, chosen acceptance over struggle.

So, as I am robbed of my privacy and peace of mind, I'm simultaneously choosing to take control in the ways that I can, which SEGUE leads me to the topic of today's post.... I have been keeping a list entitled "REDISTRIBUTING THE TECHNOLOGICAL BURDEN."

All this goes to say that smartphone dependence is merely a facade. To the best of our ability, we can and must opt-out of tech doom! The following may seem paradoxical, but it's true: in the school of being human, we're far more capable on our own than with an all-knowing computer in our pockets.

Under big tech's spell, we lose the ability to trust our instincts: We can't navigate our cities alone, connect with people we meet by chance, spend a moment alone with our thoughts without compulsively seeking out stimulation. My generation in particular has it rough, given a majority of us have been socialized through the internet (......aka anti-socialized.) You can see the consequences of this today --- just look around any given college campus. You'll find a vast number of students tuning out the world: Noise canceling headphones engaged, streaming a podcast to simulate social interaction, or music to fill the silence (in either case being almost certainly algorithmically forced into their consciousness.) Being constantly plugged-in has become incredibly normalized --- it shan't be. 

Don't get distracted. Happy 2026 y'all :-)

P.s. I spent some time at my parents' house this weekend, and they have an Amazon 'Echo Show' in their kitchen [it's an Alexa with a huge ass screen. Shiver me timbers.] It scares me for particularly this reason: every time I'm in the kitchen I say "Alexa, turn off display" so I don't have to look at in all its grotesqueness. However it'll only actually turn off the screen like 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time it pretends to not hear me so it can keep shoving its content and ads down my throat.

Do I have ground for a lawsuit y'all? Haha. . . . . . . 

not that i have the funds to literally sue amazon. But it's weird, no?

<< LAST // NEXT >>